Fate's Design
by TheCivilState
Summary: Fate had never been kind to their family.  Kol and Finn knew this all too well.


_Kiss it all better I'm not ready to go._

For being the almighty Original vampires, they were impressively weak. All their strength, speed, and compulsion could not undo the situation unfolding before them. No amount of magic could reverse the crumbling occurring in their ranks. For all their self-imposed mightiness, they were weaklings. Perhaps their father had been right. Perhaps they were too soft, too compassionate, too not what he wanted in his children.

Children. That was something none of them would ever have. They could create vampires and call them their children, yes, but they could not have children of their own. Niklaus would never have a son with his smile, nor Rebekah a daughter with her eyes. Elijah would never teach his daughter to dance and Kol would not hand down the wisdom of successful pranking to any of his progeny.

Of them all, Finn had come the closest to being a parent, finding a daughter in Violet. A daughter they had just burned on a funeral pyre.

_Listen, listen, I will take a whisper, _ _If that's all you had to give_

"I don't understand how she could love you," Klaus said and Kol wanted to rip his brother's heart out.

"I'm grateful for it," he quickly added, "But I don't understand how she could love you and not despise me after all he did to her."

"Perhaps Finn was right," Kol mused, "When he said she had a second sight. Maybe she saw something good in us. Something good enough to love." They stood side-by-side, brothers united by tragedy, and watched the other mourners slowly mingle in the foyer. Some, wearied by the anguish around them, were slowly disappearing out the door.

"You were her favorite of us," Kol said and Klaus laughed, an odd sound at a funeral.

"No baby brother," he said, clapping him on the back, "That was always you. And how I envied you."

_The coward he ran _ _And in his arms is the bleeding love of his life_

Kol had been the one to blame for Henrick's death. The youngest boys had been assigned to the trapping for the week and Kol, being the elder of the two, was put in charge. But he had become distracted, as he often did as a young boy, and had abandoned his younger brother in the forest with the final traps that needed to be set.

"_Take care of those for me," _he had said, _"You are the responsible one now." _In Kol's defense, he had forgotten entirely about the full moon that night. Had he remembered, perhaps things would have been differently. Always perhaps.

"_Kol!" _Aria had called out into the darkness from the safety of her home, _"Come inside! Hurry!" _He ran through the open doorway and bolted it behind him, following Aria as she led him down into the cellar where Tatia awaited. She was fully pregnant at the time and while curious, Kol never asked who the father was. He also never asked why his brothers loved a woman who was having a child by another man. Such things did not make sense.

"_What are you doing out so late?" _Aria had asked and the gravity of the situation hit him.

"_Henrick!" _

Aria kept him in the cellar all through the night and when morning came, he returned home in time to see Niklaus carrying the body of their bloodied youngest brother. The screams and cries of their mother chased Kol back into the forest where he found shelter with Aria. Finn eventually arrived, knowing where the boy had run off to. For sometime Aria kept him distracted, trying to reason with him while also lending a sympathetic hand as Finn told her about the death of Henrick.

Aria had cared for all members of the family, but none so much as Kol and Henrick. She had been the one to teach him to walk and when he would fuss and refuse to sleep as a toddler, she would sway with him in her arms and he'd clutch at the golden strands of her hair. His death was as painful to Aria as it was to Finn and his family. So eventually, she retrieved Kol from his hiding place and sent him on his way with Finn. But before she let them go, she made Finn promise that if Mikael tried to hurt Kol, he would allow the boy to return to her and she would keep him safe. Finn, never able to deny Aria anything, had agreed.

It was Kol's mistake that caused their mother to turn them into vampires. Kol's mistake that had taken Finn away from Aria. And it was now Kol's mistake again that robbed his elder brother of Violet.

There was only so much Finn could take.

_Her hands are so cold_ _And he kisses her face_ _And says everything will be alright._

"She wished to die once." Elijah's soft-spoken comment shattered the silence his siblings had crafted around them. Kol wanted to lash out and call him a liar, but he knew it was truth. They all knew it was true.

"Why?" Rebekah asked, not as attached to Violet as her brothers had been, but still curious. She couldn't understand why a vampire would wish to die. It was a concept she could not accept.

"She was alone," he said, "All alone. Even when we were traveling together, there was this loneliness that followed her. Like she was missing something."

"Kol." The comment was whispered under Klaus' breath, but they all heard it. And for a brother who was infamous for his lying, it was strange to hear him so honest.

_I pretend I'm alright, but it's never enough_

"Caroline?" The blonde stepped around a few vampires who still lingered in the foyer and smiled at Klaus.

"I know it's not really my place-"

"Thank you for coming." She reached out and grasped his hand, allowing him to pull her into his arms and stroke her hair. It felt strange, him holding her like this when she should have been the one doing all the comforting. And yet it was what Klaus needed to feel better and Caroline wasn't about to deny him such a simple act.

"She liked you," he whispered into her hair. She smiled into his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I liked her too."

_His rage grew inside._ _He said I'll avenge my lover tonight._

Finn stepped into Kol's room, knife in hand. Kol knew what was coming, could feel the pain radiating off his older brother. It was his fault. Aria and Violet. It was all Kol's fault and he knew it. That's why he didn't stop his brother from stabbing him in the heart.

The Originals all felt the pain and endured it, suddenly thankful for an outward expression of their inner agony. The pain continued, knives being stabbed into various limbs and hearts being mangled and throats being slashed. But it was not enough for Finn. It was not enough that he could not inflict upon Kol all the pain he had inflicted upon Violet. It was not enough that Kol remained, eyes open, staring at him. So he broke his neck.

Caroline caught Klaus as he collapsed. She held him in her arms until he awoke. Then she asked him to come with her. He agreed.

_He holds only a memory._ _All it is a memory_

Violet had been six when Finn first met her. The little Grecian had looked peculiar with her pale skin and watery gray eyes that saw more than they should. Rose had taken her in when her family back in Crete disowned her. Her cousin had been wary about presenting her to Finn, but he had insisted on supplying the girl with an education. It did not matter that she was female and would forever be considered the weaker sex, Finn believed that all minds should be educated. And when he first met Violet, who was called Iolanthe then, he had seen the makings of a great scholar.

"Are you very wise?" he had asked after Rose had introduced the Lord Finn. _Finn, _Violet had said, _Like a fish._

"No," the child said and Finn rewarded her honesty with a smile as Rose hesitantly looked on.

"Do you desire to be?" She bit her lip in thought, a habit she would maintain up until her death when she would bite her lip in half. But the six year old had not thought of her demise, certainly not imagining it occurring centuries in the future.

"Would I be alone?" That was always her question. _Would I be alone? _Finn knew from the moment she first asked that Violet's biggest fear in life was being alone. That was why she would later endure the abuse of Klaus and Kol, the only ones who paid her any attention after Finn was daggered and locked away. Her desire to never be alone had turned her life is so many horrible directions.

"No," he had promised, "You will not be alone."

He hoped in the end that had been true.

_I just wanna feel alive_ _And get to see your face again_

"Finn?" Kol's voice was hesitant as he stepped into one of the spare rooms Finn had adopted as his own. His original room was still in disrepair after Kol's violent scuffle with Violet. It didn't matter if the wall was patched and the mirror replaced. No one would ever sleep in that room again. It would merely accumulate dust for centuries until they abandoned the home and it turned to dust. Just as Violet had. _Fly, fly away, _she had wished. What a morbid way to prove wishes came true.

"I'm sorry," he said and left it at that because there was not enough time in eternity to list the sins he had committed against his brother. He was beginning to understand how fragile eternity was and he did not want to lose his brother in it all.

Finn turned and stared at his brother who did not look like a centuries old Original. He did not see the sadistic killer who broke the necks of innocent girls in order to erase the memory of Violet. He did not see the tortured soul who'd dragged an angel out of heaven so he would not be alone- _for that was what Kol had desired with Violet, a companion so he would not be alone. _No. All Finn saw was a very frightened little boy hiding under a bed whispering to whatever god there was that he was sorry for the death of his brother. All Finn saw was Kol. Human. Small. Ashamed. Desperately begging for the approval of his brother. For forgiveness. For love. Begging not to be left alone.

And then, because it was right and because it was true and because Violet would approve and he had always wanted her approval, he said what his brother needed to hear. The truth.

"I love you."

_He couldn't bring her back with a bullet to the heart of the back of a man who tore his world apart._

Kol fell asleep on Finn's bed having cried himself to sleep. Finn wanted to break his neck so he would sleep without dreams, but the bond their mother had created prevented him from doing that. Granted, they could all use a dreamless slumber.

Instead, Finn busied himself packing a few of his belongings into a small satchel. It was pointless to pack clothes- _Why take with what you can compel when you arrive? _Kol had always said- but there were a few treasures Finn could not compel for himself, no matter where in the world he went.

The most precious of all his possessions were two pieces of jewelry he had never given to their intended recipients. A necklace for Violet, a wedding ring for Aria.

Of all the siblings, Finn was the one who'd never learned to run fast enough to outrun the ghosts.

_You didn't know._ _Stay with me until I fall asleep._ _Stay with me._

The house was empty as he made the slow trek down the stairs and to the front door. Kol was asleep, Klaus had left with Caroline, and Elijah had probably gone to check on the doppleganger he so loved. There were times Finn was jealous of his brother and the Petrova women who always appeared in his life. At times he wished Aria had been used in the sacrifice to bind Klaus' wolf tendencies. It was morbid and cruel to think of Aria being murdered in relation to his brother, but Finn could not entirely remove the idea from his thoughts. To think Aria's doppleganger could be in Elena's place. To think the mirror image of the woman he loved could be alive and mingling with the citizens of Mystic Falls. To think he could make her fall in love with him.

He wished his family the best and pulled open the door.

_Hello, hello anybody out there?_

"Hello," Aria said, and then, taking in his haggard appearance, dropped her smile. "May I come in?" He opened the door wide and she stepped around him, the sent of vanilla and cranberries overwhelming his senses. His satchel slipped from his hand and fell to the floor as Aria stood in the midst of the foyer and took in the grandness of it all. She turned back to him and he wanted to cry at the unfairness of it all. At least there was a reason dopplegangers did not remember past lives. They had none. It was Fate's cruelest act to present Aria to him and yet have her stripped of her memories. Stripped of her love.

"Are you leaving?" she asked, looking at the satchel on the floor. He closed the door and shook his head.

"No."

**a/n: **I figure if Glee can do a mash-up, I could do a song fic mash-up. Yep. Once again, I own Aria and Violet, but I don't own any of the other characters despite how much I wish I did.

Fave, flame, faint.

_[song fic inspired by "Echo" by Jason Walker and "Kiss It All Better" by He Is We]_

_oxox._


End file.
